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\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n\nCome join me on Wednesday 14 March at 7.30pm, and discover what Russia’s famines have revealed about the living world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This is the third in a series of lectures I’m giving at Pushkin House, the Russian cultural centre in London. It is part of a large work in progress: a history of science under Stalin’s rule. The book is due out in 2014 from Faber and Faber. <\/p>\n
After the civil war, the Bolsheviks turned to the revolutionary science of genetics for help in securing the Soviet food supply. The young Soviet Union became a world leader in genetics and shared its knowledge with Germany. Then Stalin’s impatience and suspicion destroyed the field and virtually wiped out Russian agriculture. Stalin was right to be suspicious: genetics had promised the world a future of health and longevity, but by the 1940s it was delivering death camps and human vivisection. Genetic advances have made possible our world of plenty – but why did the human cost have to be so high?<\/p>\nPushkin House, 5a Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2TA. Tickets are £7, conc. £5 (Friends of Pushkin House, students and OAPs). The box office is on 44 (0)20 7269 9770, but you can always take a chance and pay on the night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Come join me on Wednesday 14 March at 7.30pm, and discover what Russia’s famines have revealed about the living world. This is the third in a series of lectures I’m giving at Pushkin House, the Russian cultural centre in London. … Continue reading